Financial Engineer

What it is:

How it works (Example):

Financial engineers design, create and implement new financial instruments, models and processes to solve problems in finance and take advantage of new financial opportunities. A great deal of research goes into these models and theories and they rely on in-depth data analysis, stochastics, simulations, and risk analysis. Financial engineers apply their knowledge in several academic fields, including corporate finance, economics and statistics. Financial engineers work in the securities, banking, financial management and consulting industries.

Financial engineers sometimes implement strategies for companies to use in order to maximize profits or other performance metrics. Examples include creating derivatives that address unusual risks faced by a party to a transaction, structuring a purchase or sale in a way that better addresses the interests of the buyer and the seller, and using new methods to compute the fair market value of new or existing financial instruments.

Why it Matters:

Many financial engineers say that financial engineering involves as much creativity as is does technical knowledge, because the field is a pioneering, innovative one. The evolution of cheaper, faster computers has greatly expanded the financial engineering field.

The career of a financial engineer is somewhat controversial. Some believe that it increases any economy's systemic risk instead of decreasing it. For example, financial engineers are largely responsible for the development and use of derivatives like credit-default swaps and mortgage-backed securities that were blamed for the near financial meltdown in 2007-2008.

CONTENT LIBRARY

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